I'm Not Talking To You
by dinabar
Summary: Harry and Nikki are placed in quarantine after they are exposed to a suspected hemorrhagic fever virus during a PM. Harry is bored and tries to pass the time...
1. Chapter 1

**This was supposed to be light hearted and funny, but I think it got a bit angsted along the way… Anyway hope you enjoy, I always love to know what you think.**

**All characters belong to the BBC no infringement is intended. Grumpy Doctor and the nurses are mine.**

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><p><strong>I'm Not Talking To You <strong>

"I'm not staying in here for 21 days!" shouted Harry.

"That shouldn't be necessary," said Leo calmly, his voice distorted by his face mask and air filter. "We just need to be careful Harry," he said as he pushed Harry into the small room with his double gloved hand. "I don't need to tell you the rules, the doctors will be in to do some blood work later and then hopefully we'll be able to tell."

"I'm fine…" Harry began to protest but Leo was already gone.

He looked round his room, ten foot square of boredom and sterile confinement. A bed, chair, bathroom area and that was about it. The blinds were drawn on the only window. He opened them to reveal another set of blinds in the room next to his. He wondered if that was where they had put Nikki.

"Nikki," he sighed. He should never have asked her to assist him. It wasn't her case, she'd even been up late working the night before and he could tell she was tired. She'd seemed tired all week and this was Friday afternoon. But it had seemed an age since they had spent any time together and so he'd purposely tricked her. He knew after all these years how to manipulate her to his own advantage. So he'd claimed fallibility and appealed to her sense of mystery and begged for help with his unknown male of African descent. How was he to know at first glance he'd died of one of those nasty hemorrhagic fevers and that they would both end up in quarantine for at least the next 48 hours. It wasn't the weekend he'd had planned out.

He lent against the window trying to find a place to see through to see if it was Nikki in the next room; but there were no cracks. There would be no chance to see in unless the occupant of the room opened the blinds from their side, if it were even her in that room. He pressed his ear to the window hoping to hear something that would give him a clue. He couldn't be certain but the only sound he did hear sounded suspiciously like retching.

This was definitely not how he'd planned it.

He looked in the mirror, checking for a rash and felt his head for signs of fever. He was fine, he was really fine, they had hardly even started the PM before state of the liver had alerted them both to the potential danger and they had stopped.

But here they were and they wouldn't be getting out anytime soon.

"Nikki," he called into the window.

"Nikki, Is that you in there?" he knocked on the window.

He continued to knock and call, deciding that whoever was in the room would get fed up and finally make themselves known. He hadn't seen Nikki since they were bundled into the hazmat ambulances, she could be anywhere. There was no reason why they would have even been taken to the same facility.

Just when even he had got bored of tapping on the window, the blinds were raised up 2 inches at the bottom of the window and a scrap of paper towel was held against the window.

He read the words written in her unmistakeable hand writing and couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm not talking to you!"


	2. Chapter 2

She didn't lower the blind again, which he took to be a positive sign. He was able to see into her room if he knelt down, but it wasn't comfortable and the view wasn't perfect. He could see at least two pairs of white wellingtons in there so he surmised that the doctors had arrived to take samples. He wasn't sure exactly what they were going to test for. It was too soon to check for a decrease in platelets and lymphocytes, maybe this was a control sample. All these horrible viruses were pretty tricky to diagnose anyway, the only certain thing was that most of them killed you.

He threw himself on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He wondered if he could have done anything differently had he known, or suspected. He wouldn't have invited Nikki to join him on the PM that was for sure but other than that there was nothing. There was no one to blame for his incarceration, no one to be angry at who had caused the exposure. Only the dead man, and he was most definitely dead and from the brief examination he had given him Harry knew that his last days had been agony. It left him feeling helpless, with no one to direct his anger at it was left to leech into his own system. He thought about the note Nikki had written him. At least she did have someone she could be angry with.

Eventually the doctors made it to his room, the nurse could hardly see to take his blood, through the face mask; and the gloves and protective overalls made her movements seem clumsy.

"Would you like me to do it myself?" Harry asked her pointing to the needle.

"That would not follow procedural guidelines," the other doctor interrupted and Harry spotted a look of disappointment cross the nurse's face as she realised she would have to manage herself.

"Can I get something to do?" asked Harry.

"The TV works," the doctor replied flatly.

"TV, seriously?" Harry asked. "Any chance of a book, you could burn it afterwards, it's not asking for much is it?"

"We don't have any at this facility," the doctor replied unfeelingly.

"Nothing?" asked Harry incredulously and winced as the nurse finally plucked up the courage to insert the cannula.

"A medical journal then? Hazmat procedures, health and safety manual there must be something here?" Harry begged.

"This is an isolation facility not a holiday camp," the doctor replied testily and retreated.

"I'll see what I can do," whispered the nurse

"My colleague I'm sure would appreciate something too," Harry said and gestured to the next room.

The nurse just nodded slightly and followed the doctor out.

Twenty minutes later half a pad of lined paper and a pencil were passed through the hatch in the door. The nurse had obviously burgled the stationery cupboard.

It was going to be a long weekend.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry assumed he must have dozed off after the doctors left, as when he woke all the lights had been dimmed in an attempt to create an artificial night, but it still wasn't dark. He was hot and uncomfortable. He was sure they were not early symptoms of fever but more as a result from being stuck in this box of a room, with its special air filtration system. He wasn't even sure of the time, all his personal possessions and clothes had been taken away to be sterilized or destroyed when he arrived. There was a sandwich and bottle of water now in the air locked shelf on the door which he opened and ate. This certainly wasn't a holiday camp.

He flicked on the TV, it looked like late night Friday programmes, the ones he occasionally watched after a night out. They weren't nearly as funny after a sandwich and a bottle of water as he usually found them and flicked the TV off again.

This was torture, for a brief moment the thought crossed his mind that suffering Ebola would be preferable, but he realised that was silly and went over to the window to peer into Nikki's room. Her TV was on, he couldn't see it but the flickering blueish light was unmistakeable. He could also hear the sounds of voices as he pressed his ear against the glass and hear someone crying. He prayed that was on the TV too.

He started doodling on his pad of paper for want of anything better to do. He started drawing little figures with bored expressions on their faces and had just drawn a rather graphic caricature of a head with its eyeballs popping out of its sockets when he had an idea.

He pulled the chair nearer to the window and quickly drew a series of dashes on a page and went over to hold it against the window.

He knocked quietly at first, half hoping not to wake her if she were sleeping, but he was bored and inevitably the knocking got louder.

He noticed the TV get turned off first and held his breath as he waited for her next move. He really didn't want her to ignore him; that would just make this hideous weekend even more unbearable.

The blind was raised another two inches and he tried his best to smile at her. She didn't smile back. He gestured to the dashes on his page and looked back at her.

_' _ / _ _ _ _ _

Nikki just stared back obviously confused. He held up his sketch of the man with his eyeballs popping out to which he had now added a noose and gallows.

Nikki nodded and went to collect the other half of the note pad and started writing out the alphabet. She pointed in turn to the letters she was suggesting, no E, no A, no T. Harry busily constructed a new bit of scaffold with each wrong guess.

Nikki continued through the vowels and after Harry had added I and O to his dashes, he thought he saw the hint of a smile on her face.

I'_ / _O_ _ _

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><p><strong>Happy Mother's Day to all concerned. Hey make my day, you could review!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you for the lovely reviews, I'm glad you like the idea. I did wonder when I began to write about why I had chosen to do a story that relied heavily on facial expressions and holding up notes to each other and how it would work, but luckily for me you all have wonderful imaginations… I can't say the same about some of your spelling though. I love the fact that Ana and Flossie guessed the hangman and Ana certainly isn't using English as her first language, I'm not sure how far down the list English comes for Flossie and they were the two that got it right! Along with a correct entry from rbs89. I did check and Nikki had already suggested E so it can't be 'I'm bored', I'm afraid. Not that I want to put you off guessing you understand, all your lovely reviews and Flossie's new fic gave me a wonderful cyber birthday, thank you, even if the real one involved vomiting children. I'll say no more; on with the show.**

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><p>It didn't take her long to suggest the remaining letters; she even did them in sequence: M S R Y.<p>

Harry pulled his pad down and scribbled another sentence.

"I really am very very sorry."

"So you should be!" She wrote back.

"Are you OK? How do you feel?"

Harry held his pad against the glass for a millisecond and before Nikki had even had a chance to read it whipped it away and added some more:

"Do not answer FINE!" and drew a big dark arrow, to point at the addition.

Nikki shook her head and wrote slowly and deliberately

"I'm not sure."

Harry pointed back to his earlier apology sentence.

"You weren't to know, Harry. It's not your fault."

Harry stared at her notepad and back to her, seeing his name written in her handwriting like that had made him feel slightly peculiar.

"It's your turn," he wrote.

Nikki thought for a while and then started drawing out her own series of dashes.

_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _

It had obviously been a while since Nikki had played this game, Harry thought. She'd included all the vowels except U and the words had S T R and then he looked and realised she wasn't really playing the game at all.

I T S/_ A T E/ _ O O _/ _ I _ _ T / _ A R R _

He wondered if he should start guessing the letters he knew weren't there just to keep her with him longer, but he knew it wasn't fair. She'd been tired before this whole thing had even begun. But before he guessed H and Y he wrote on his paper.

"Will you talk to me again tomorrow please?"

She smiled and wrote back.

"I already told you, I'm not talking to you!"

Harry grinned.

"Will you write to me tomorrow then, please?"

She nodded and smiled at him, truly smiled at him, not the one she reserved for social niceties but her best smile, the one that crinkled her nose and made her eyes laugh.

"Good Night" Harry mouthed through the window.

"Night," she replied.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry smiled to himself as he made his way back to the bed. He'd not seen Nikki smile like that for weeks, more than a month even. Not since that night at the pub. He pushed his hand through his hair; that night. He still couldn't believe he couldn't remember what had happened.

He'd thought it would come back after a few hours; then a few days; then a few weeks. But it hadn't.

They'd not talked about it either.

There hadn't been a chance that first morning, dashing off to the crime scene at the crack of dawn at Leo's request.

And then he'd been sent home ill.

And then he'd spent the next two days vomiting leaving Leo and Nikki in the thick of things. He'd needed a couple more days off work after that to get his strength back.

It was all such a mess.

By the time he'd got back to work, time had moved on and they were all still rushed off their feet. All that Nikki had said on the matter had been: 'nothing happened.' And that had been that.

But that wasn't that. It couldn't be the end. It just couldn't be.

He tried to concentrate his mind back to what he did remember about that night. Maybe now with nothing else to do and no distractions he would relax and be able to remember some more. He still couldn't really believe that he had been so drunk that over a month later he still couldn't remember very much of what had gone on. Usually when they were out together he moderated his drinking. He was highly aware of how loose his tongue became after he'd had too many, and a loose tongue on a night out with Nikki just boded disaster. So he was usually a bit careful. He'd put her to bed on more than one occasion. They had both fallen asleep together on the sofa before now; but not this, never this.

He sat still, his feet up on the bed and closed his eyes, watching the events of the evening he did remember pass before him.

She had smiled at him when he had entered the pub; just like she had smiled at him tonight. Maybe that was why this was bothering him again, bringing it all back to the surface.

Who was he kidding? This had been bothering him for weeks.

They had gone to the pub because…they had finally finished the Simmons case and they decided they deserved a celebration if just for getting DI Morrison out of their hair for a while. Nikki had gone on ahead and just as Harry was about to leave Morrison had marched in for one last rant. He obviously needed to claim responsibility for breaking the case, regardless of the fact that it wasn't him at all, it was the evidence that they had painstakingly found; despite all his yelling. Harry just let him shout himself out, and slipped out at the first opportunity.

Nikki had been pleased to see him when he walked in, relieved even; some creep at the bar had been making unwanted advances and had even bought her a drink and sent it over to her table. So she had been so happy when Harry turned up, she even kissed him on the cheek ostentatiously just so Mr Creepy could see.

Then…

Then…

It was all a blank. Really blank.

He couldn't help feeling cold, and he had that gut sucking feeling of dread and panic. There were hours he still couldn't account for.

His next memory of that night was his phone ringing. It was still dark he remembered. He had taken his phone from his trouser pocket that had been folded and placed on the chair next to the bed.

The phone had flashed 3:17am when he had picked it up.

He'd talked to Leo.

He must have talked to Leo, but even that was a bit hazy. There were two things he remembered Leo saying distinctly.

"If you're still drunk Harry, make some coffee and get a cab."

"I'll have to phone Nikki, and get her to come in too."

Harry remembered lying back down heavily on the pillow taking a moment to process and to wake up slightly. He had a feeling that something was different, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. One thing he remembered for sure was that his headache had been phenomenal.

Then he'd heard a phone ring.

His had still been in his hand, but it had remained dark, brooding and silent. It hadn't been his phone ringing. In his half-awake state he had been dimly aware that he had recognised the ring tone.

Then the woman lying next to him, had sworn, sat up and answered her phone. He'd hardly registered her presence before and then he'd heard her say.

"I'll be right there Leo."

"Nikki?" Harry had stammered, finally taking in his surroundings. He hadn't been at his house. He'd been at Nikki's. He hadn't been in his bed; he'd been in Nikki's. His clothes had been folded and left on the chair next to him. He'd taken a moment to consciously feel what he had been wearing revealing the fact that ALL his clothes were on the chair next to him. He now knew what the 'different' feeling had been.

"Nikki?" Harry had asked again.

"Come on, we need to get to work," she had said and looked down at him. "Look's like I'd better drive!" And with that she had climbed out of the bed unashamedly naked and had walked through to her bathroom.

He remembered the utter sense of panic he had felt then. It still made his stomach churn even now. What had he done? What had they done? Or not done? They were both naked! Why couldn't he remember? Why did his head hurt so badly? Why was Nikki so calm? He had stumbled into her kitchen looking for water, coffee and painkillers and grabbed his clothes as he'd gone.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry woke the next morning and felt his heart sink as he registered his surroundings. He saw a flurry of activity in the room next to his. Nikki hadn't lowered her blind when she had gone to bed, so even from his position in his bed he could see at least two people fully suited up and moving around quickly. Well as quickly as was possible under the white protective suits. They were peering into the cardboard receptacles that only hospitals have and tipping the contents into specimen jars.

He moved to the window in one swift bound. Nikki was sat on the edge of her bed clutching yet another of the brown receptacles and looking decidedly pale. Someone was drawing more blood from her arm, but with the full suits on it was difficult to tell if it was the same grumpy doctor from yesterday or the helpful nurse.

Harry suspected his question had been answered when his sudden movement on his side of the glass drew the attention of one of the hazmat space suit beings who quickly lowered the blind. That would have to have been Grumpy Doctor.

In the bathroom mirror Harry inspected his face and upper torso for signs of a rash, redness, swelling anything to indicate he was ill. He still wasn't feverish. He didn't have a headache. How could he be fine and Nikki be throwing her guts up next door? She was only assisting, if anyone had got close to the victim it was him. So why was Nikki the one suffering?

Why did Nikki always suffer from his mistakes?

He started pacing up and down; the small room was really beginning to get on his nerves now. He'd caught up on any lost sleep already. What would he do for the rest of the day?

He leant against the window, knowing he couldn't see through but needing the comfort of feeling that she was close. He was sure she couldn't have been infected. She had looked tired all week, he remembered now. Maybe she had the sickness bug he'd had. It had knocked him out for 48 hours and even after that he was weak and had difficulty concentrating. That must be it, maybe she just had norovirus. He knocked his head against the glass.

Wishing your best friend had norovirus. How bad could a weekend get?

He found his note pad and began to write. He could lean it up against the window and then she would see the message whenever she opened the blind.

He couldn't imagine how she must be feeling.

"Nikki I'm worried about you. But I think this is a bug you already had before we came in here. I'm fine, I'm sure and I got closer to the body than you did, I don't think you've been infected from that. Maybe you just picked up that vomiting bug I had. I'm really sorry, really really sorry. I wish I could come in there and talk to you. Harry x"

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><p><strong>Norovirus is also known as the winter vomiting bug, and it does what it says. It's nasty but does clear up after a few days.<strong>

**I did warn you in got a bit angsty… I always love to hear what you think.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A thousand apologies, there I was moaning at the poor standard of English amongst the natives and I go and mess up the last Hangman, sorry if that had you puzzling for hours. I have since corrected it. The answer was "It's late, good night Harry," so super bonus prizes to Flossie, Hopelesslyhalfhearted and Amy for getting this one, despite the fact I hadn't included enough letters!**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I'm so pleased you're having fun.**

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><p>Harry's bloods were retaken later that morning. It was a different nurse and this one looked less intimidated by the whole affair, as if he spent every day masked, suited and double gloved. Maybe he did.<p>

Harry had never watched Saturday morning TV before. He made a mental note that he never would again. Going out for a run on even the coldest Saturday morning had to be better than watching endless cooking shows and idiots talking rubbish. They were all supposed to be celebrities, but he'd never heard of any of them. He wasn't sure if that said anything about him or the people on the shows.

The food that had been passed through the hatch to him was hardly appetizing but at least it was adequate. He'd begged at breakfast for a packet of opal fruit to blank stares until he had corrected himself and asked for Starbursts and someone had obviously taken pity on him, as there was a packet hidden under one of the disposable lunch plates.

He waited for the blinds to move on Nikki's side of the divide but the clock continued to tick and time passed inexorably slowly but there was no change to the position of the blind in Nikki's room. He'd tried to quiz the nurse earlier but he claimed no knowledge of the occupant of the next room.

He couldn't help worrying about Nikki. He'd not been able to see in, so he didn't know if she had continued to vomit during the day or whether it was just first thing this morning.

This morning?

First thing this morning?

Harry suddenly stopped pacing the room and went back and leant against the window. He put his hand on the glass. This possibility with one of his girlfriends had been a recurrent nightmare of his for years. All the way back to Penny really. It couldn't be; could it?

He closed his eyes and imagined the possibility. He let his mind wander; envisaging various scenarios and the usual horror that overtook him in his nightmares and woke him up fighting for breath was conspicuously absent. He felt quite the opposite in fact. But it couldn't be true. She had told him herself that nothing had happened. Surely he hadn't been so unmemorable? If only he could remember what had actually happened that night.

It was after 5 o'clock when Grumpy Doctor came back in, without his safety suit on and told him he was free to go. The blood work, and analyses had all come back negative. He was a free man.

"What about Nikki?" had been his first question.

"Dr Alexander has been displaying more symptoms than you, we are keeping her here for at least another 24 hours," the doctor explained.

"But it's just norovirus isn't it or something like that?" Harry suggested.

"There are all manner of reasons why a person experiences bouts of vomiting but until the tests come back we won't know for sure, but what I do know, is that you can leave but Dr Alexander has to stay."

"Can I see her?" Harry asked.

"No!" the doctor exclaimed. "It would go against every health and safety guideline we have."

"Then I won't leave either," Harry insisted.

"This is not a hotel!" the doctor announced. "This is a medical facility and you are well enough to leave."

Harry began choking and retching.

"I'm not feeling too good, Doc," Harry stuttered through his coughing. "You'll just have to keep me here to make sure."

"Dr Cunningham! You are perfectly well, you have loathed every minute of your confinement and now you have been asked to leave, you are refusing? What is your problem?"

"I'm not leaving without her," Harry said petulantly.

"Stay then! But I'm leaving the door open; just make sure the nurse on reception knows if you decide to leave."

"Can I have my clothes back?" Harry asked.

"No, they were incinerated. What you don't like the scrubs?" the doctor suddenly laughed. "I'm sure you're right Harry, the most likely explanation is that something else is making Dr Alexander sick, but I'm not taking any chances. Stay here as long as you want, but try not to cause any trouble."

"I'll try," Harry agreed and then suddenly added.

"If you were in any other place than this isolation facility and a healthy young woman presented to you with extreme fatigue and vomiting, what would your diagnosis be?"

The doctor looked back at Harry, one eyebrow raised.

"Do the test…Please…" Harry begged.

"Is there something I should know?" the doctor asked.

"Not that I'm aware of," Harry said honestly.


	8. Chapter 8

It was much later when Harry heard a faint knocking on the window and saw the blind raised up. He flew across in one stride, pulling the chair with him as he went.

"How are you?" he wrote.

"I've been better; I can't believe how tired I am."

"It's just because we've had a chance to slow down, everything catches up on us,"

"Maybe"

"Nikki, we need to talk."

"I thought this was talking."

"No, really talk."

Nikki shrugged her shoulders and mouthed 'How?' Then she wrote:

"How's that supposed to happen, we're stuck here in isolation until we die or can convince that grumpy old doctor we're not infected."

Harry smiled.

"That was not supposed to be funny!" she wrote and stuck out her tongue.

"I know, it's just that I've been calling him 'Grumpy Doctor' too"

"You're not going to die, Nikki, we're fine." He added.

"So you really want to talk about how you landed me in this hell hole for the weekend?"

Harry shook his head and tried to look serious.

"No, I mean talk about what happened."

She looked at him puzzled but then eventually realised what he was referring to and then wrote something very slowly and deliberately on her notepad.

"I've told you Harry, nothing happened."

"I woke up naked in your bed. Something must have happened!"

"You still don't remember?"

"NO"

Harry had covered half of the side of his paper with the two letters, and pulled a matching horrified face.

"Nikki, I remember going to the pub with you and I remember you were happy to see me and I remember Leo phoning and waking me up, and then he phoned you and woke you up. But nothing else. Please."

"I told you not to touch that drink."

Harry didn't bother scribbling his reply his face was enough to ask the question.

"When you got to the pub, there was already a drink on the table; you called the bloke that had bought it for me Mr Creepy. You drank it."

Harry suddenly grabbed his pad and started writing, finally remembering one more piece of the evening.

"Waste not, want not! It was a whisky."

Nikki nodded.

"But I still don't understand."

"Harry, you drank a drink sent over by Mr Creepy, you spent the next 48 hours vomiting and still have no memory of the night's events!"

There was a beat as Harry stared open mouthed at her, before he turned his attention back to his paper.

"You're saying I was Rohypnoled?"

"And you claim to be a scientist?"

Harry just continued to stare, open mouthed.

"You knew this and you didn't tell me?"

"I figured you must have realised. It was pretty obvious."

"Not to me!"

"Evidently"

"I don't think I'm talking to you." Harry pouted and pushed his chair further back from the window.


	9. Chapter 9

Harry sat as far back in his chair as the room would allow and tried to process the new information. It was obvious now. He couldn't think why it hadn't crossed his mind before. It all began to make sense. But now he knew why there was a huge gap in his memory, he still didn't know what had actually happened. He quickly thought through all the effects of Rohypnol to try and fill in some of the blanks.

Harry's hands began to shake as he picked up his pad. He could feel his eyes begin to sting and willed them not to spill over.

"Did I hurt you?"

Nikki shook her head, and reached forward and touched the glass between them.

"But what happened?"

"You really want to know?"

"YES!" He wrote in bold letters shuffling his chair back towards the window.

"I thought you weren't talking to me!"

"I am now, and I want to know."

"All of it?"

"Of course all of it!"

Nikki looked up at Harry, he had his hands pressed together and mouthed 'please.' She picked up her pad and began to write. He watched her writing, crossing out, pulling a page out and starting again. Finally after what seemed like a lifetime she raised her pad to the window. Harry could feel his heart thumping in his chest.

"We had some drinks at the pub we had a laugh. You were relaxed, funny. I had a great time. We went back to my place and

we talked, you put on some music and we danced and I kissed you and you said that it was dangerous to kiss someone

you were in love with and you wouldn't kiss me again. I asked you who you were in love with and you said me. And then

you very seriously declared it was bed time, and you went into my room, took off your clothes, folded them neatly and put

them on the chair, got into bed and fell asleep."

Nikki had watched his face for a reaction as he read through her paragraph. She could see him race through it to the end and then restart it and read carefully and then read it again. She knew he would have memorised her words on the third go through.

"You didn't just make that up?"

"Harry if I were making it up, I would have at least made is sound slightly believable."

They stared at each other through the glass for a while. Harry's brain was swimming, he tried to match what she had written to what he remembered but there was still just a blank in his memory. It all did seem bizarrely credible. He felt quite at ease at Nikki's house and it wouldn't be beyond belief that in his drugged state he had just decided to go to sleep. But that still left one big question.

"But why were you naked?"

Harry looked back up at her. It was a big question. He could almost believe that he would have gone to bed by himself and folded his clothes. Falling into bed with a beautiful woman didn't usually include folded clothes on his part, they were usually scattered where they had fallen and he remembered the folded clothes for himself.

"We'd both had a lot to drink."

"That's not really an answer."

"Nikki?"

"It doesn't matter now."

He could see the tears in her eyes now, hovering ready to fall.

"It matters to me and it obviously matters to you"

"It's too late now anyway."

"It is not TOO late!"

"But I'm so sick!"

"Nikki, I'm sure we're both fine," he tried to look reassuring, before holding his pad up again.

"Nikki, why were you naked?"

He stared at her beseechingly through the glass, willing her to take that terrifying step and be honest with him. He saw one tear fall as she looked away from him and back to her writing.

"Maybe, I was hopeful. I told you it doesn't matter now."

Harry watched helplessly as the tears ran down her face.

**Hope the angst isn't putting you off…**


	10. Chapter 10

**Not quite over the angst yet. Big thanks to Lizziginne, hopelesslyhalfhearted, tigpop and pinkswallowsun for reviewing and sticking with this. More puzzles to come **

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><p>Harry wrung his fingers as he watched her continue to cry and scrubbed her hands at her eyes in that quirky way of hers. He longed to be with her, stroke her hair, hold her and tell her that it would be ok, but even though he could get out of his room, there was no way he could get into hers.<p>

"Please don't cry Nikki," he wrote and then added ditto marks down the page.

"It does matter. You are going to get well Nikki,

You haven't got Ebola or Lassa, Hanta virus or Dengue or anything like that.

You're just under the weather, you've got a bug, norovirus or…"

He couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence. He had no reason to believe she would lie to him about what happened between them that night, and so if his suspicions were true; and there was no reason to believe they weren't, it would in fact be none of his business. He noticed her stop crying and start writing again.

"It's definitely not Dengue, the attending staff don't have to wear a respirator for that one."

"How do you know stuff like that?" Harry wrote back and tried a goofy smile.

She replied with a half smile herself.

They continued to sit at their windows together, comfortable with each other and the glass induced silence for a while, as Nikki calmed herself down.

"Do you want another round?" he wrote after a few minutes, when she looked more composed.

He pointed to the page of hangman at the front of the notepad, trying the only way he could to cheer her up. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and gave a small nod.

_ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _

Nikki turned back pages in her pad to find where she had written out the alphabet, and went through the vowels. It was strangely calming playing hangman with Harry, especially after she realised that for once he was playing a game and not doing everything in his power to win.

_ _ E A S E/ S _ I_ E

She looked at the puzzle, and up at Harry's wildly grinning face and purposely pouted. She watched Harry laugh and for a moment trusted in his implicit instinct that they were going to be alright.

She guessed the remaining letters and did as he requested as he wrote them in the spaces for her.

P L E A S E / S M I L E

"Your turn!"

She started to scribble, a new wave of earnestness about her features.

_ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?

Harry was surprised at the amount of letters and hurriedly went through the vowels. It was obviously a question. Why didn't she just ask him? And while he was pondering the inponderable what had she meant by hopeful?

It suddenly struck him like a thunderbolt.

Did she really want something more than friendship between them? He'd been so overwhelmed by her crying and his powerlessness, he'd only just started thinking through what she had actually said.

Hopeful?

He pulled his attention back to the puzzle.

_ _ _ / I S / _ I S S I_ _/ A / _O _ E _ / S O / _ A _ _ E _ O U S?


	11. Chapter 11

Harry looked at the words. The sentence was a question so the first word had to be W H Y but those letters didn't fill in any more of the gaps. He tried N and R

W H Y / I S / _ I S S I N _/ A / _O _ E R / S O / _ AN _ E R O U S?

He looked again and thought back to what she had written earlier. It was an odd thing to say even for him: that kissing a lover was dangerous. But he must have said it. He trusted Nikki implicitly and she would have no reason to make that up. In her account of the events it was she who had started the kissing and he that had stopped it.

He managed to fill in the last letters just before Nikki had had the opportunity to hang him. She pointed at the sentence and shrugged her shoulders. Challenging him; daring him to answer just has he had earlier when he had asked her why she had been naked?

"Maybe it's kissing you that I find dangerous."

He scribbled it down quickly and held up the pad, but he could tell immediately that Nikki had not understood how he had meant it. He had been thinking about how much they had to lose if they acted on that thing that there was between them. The thing that had been there so long he was surprised it hadn't festered. The way he'd written it, he'd made it sound like kissing her was the infection point and now a million viruses were multiplying and ravaging through them both, ready to destroy their hosts or be destroyed themselves. From the look on Nikki's face, she had understood it as an utter rejection. He scribbled furiously.

"No, Nikki I didn't mean it like that, I didn't. I was thinking about how much we had to lose if we became an 'us' and it all went wrong. Nikki it is dangerous kissing you. Because I'm frightened that once I start I might never be able to stop. I told you I loved you that night Nikki. You remembered me saying it. I do love you Nikki and I meant it then and I mean it now. Please Nikki you have to believe me."

Nikki held up another hangman puzzle.

_ _ _ _ / _ _ _ !

Harry was still breathing hard, he had written that he loved her and she still looked angry. Weren't women supposed to go all gooey after declarations of love like that? Gooey would certainly not describe the look in his colleague's eyes at the moment; livid was closer. 'What a difference a vowel makes' he thought cynically. Eight years or so, it had taken him to work up to this and he was already regretting it.

He looked back at her puzzle in an effort to control his thoughts. Harry automatically went through the vowels and had a pretty good guess as to what the last word was.

_ _ _ _ / _ O U!

But she didn't fill in anything for the first one. He went through the whole alphabet until her little stick drawing of him had him hung and then she drew a little hand gun and started shooting bullets at the stick figure. Harry wasn't giving up though and added some punctuation. He got it eventually, but only after a few missiles and a large bomb had been drawn exploding all over her drawing of him, in a thick circle smudge of angry pencil.

$*%" / YOU!

Was the correct answer.

"Nikki I'm sorry." He wrote.

"I'm really not talking to you." She wrote back and pulled down the blind.


	12. Chapter 12

Harry didn't sleep well. The lack of fresh air and exercise had made him restless. His potential freedom and Nikki's continued incarceration weighed down on his heart and he couldn't keep away his twin demons of guilt and shame during the night, especially not after how it had ended between them yesterday.

It wasn't enough that he had unwittingly exposed her to a nasty virus. No, in the last month he had managed to make her feel utterly rejected and humiliated and not just once; twice! He was sure she had forgiven him for not kissing her back that night, they were probably both drunk, he was certainly drugged and she had obviously realised that quite early on. But yesterday? How had he managed to get it all so wrong? Why did they always make each other so angry?

He wished she could understand just for an instant how deeply he felt about her. How terrified he had become at the depth of his feelings for her and how vulnerable it made him? If she were to reject a proper advance made by him, not just one written on paper and held up to a window, he had a feeling he would completely fall apart. It was as if she were the only thing left holding him together; how and when she had acquired this power over him he was at a loss to explain.

He lay in the artificial gloom and listened for the sound of the breakfast trolley as it was pushed along the corridor outside. He was beginning to think of a plan.

Just as had happened on the previous morning, the noise of the breakfast trolley had woken Nikki up. He waited at the door of his room. His plan was to wait for the nurses to suit up and open the door, and whilst they were manoeuvring their ungainly bulk and the trolley into her room, he would make a run for it. Crawl between their legs if he had to, scooter in on the back of the trolley, he didn't care but he had to get into her room.

Had he been in the mood he would have loved to have watched the spectacle: the muffled shouts through the masks, the screams, the trolley crashing to the ground. Grumpy Doctor looking like he was having a fit, and Nikki transformed from pale and lethargic to livid, purple screaming banshee.

"Get out of here!" she yelled as soon as she saw him.

"I'm not leaving," Harry shouted back.

"Get out Harry!" she repeated.

"No, I won't!" he shouted back just as vehemently.

"It's suicide!" Nikki cried getting as far away from him in her tiny room as she could.

"Run's in the family," Harry said flippantly and took a step closer.

"Harry. Please!" Nikki begged.

"I told you, I'm not leaving and anyway I'm here now so I'll have to stay." He continued to walk towards her, purposefully opening his mouth wide and making a show of breathing in the air.

Grumpy Doctor and the nurse fumbled about on the floor trying to collect up all the items that had been knocked off when the trolley had been pushed over, not really knowing where to look, but acutely aware they were caught in the middle of a show down any cowboy would be proud of.

"Please Harry, you mustn't, don't come near me. Don't Harry don't, I don't want you near me, please go away, go away."

But Harry continued to walk slowly towards her, his determination evident in every move of his body.

"I don't believe you," he said calmly.

"Go, go now, quickly why you still have the chance."

Harry still didn't stop.

"Get out of here!" she screamed, her eyes wide, dark and staring.

* * *

><p><strong>Yo ho ho, what's coming next?<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**It's very quiet out there… you're making me nervous.**

* * *

><p>"Nikki there is nothing wrong with me, there is nothing wrong with you," He took another step closer.<p>

"You don't know that for sure! They're the doctors!" she pointed at the white suits still scrabbling around the floor.

"Please Harry, just leave me alone!"

He was stood half a pace in front of her and very slowly reached up to hold her arms.

"I just need to talk to you. I've had about as much as I can take this weekend. Please Nikki?"

"What have you done, what have you done?" she wailed. "You should have stayed where it was safe, you should have kept away from me."

"I am safe when I'm with you," he confessed looking deeply into her eyes.

"You'll be saying something else, when I start bleeding internally, and you start vomiting your guts up," she spat back angrily.

"That is not going to happen," Harry declared slowly and even more slowly pulled her towards him. He kept eye contact with her, willing her to calm down, to relax and to trust him, but there were still hints of tears and as she looked back into his eyes and realised what he wanted to do she gave a subtle shake of her head.

"You don't want to do that," she whispered.

"I think you'll find that I do," he said seriously and gently kissed her lips. It wasn't a long kiss, but it didn't need to be; he tugged her again, releasing her arms and pulled her into a hug. He felt her resist him at first, still trying to keep herself away from him, but then all of a sudden she let out a heart breaking sob and clutched at him tightly.

"I'm frightened, Harry," she cried.

"It's going to be ok," he soothed.

"You shouldn't have come in here," she repeated, half-heartedly putting her hand on his chest to push him away. He just held her closer and kissed the top of her head.

"What? I was supposed to just stand at the window and watch you in pain? You know I couldn't do that," he said solemnly.

"But you?"

"I was given the all clear yesterday Nikki, we're going to be fine."

"Then why are you still here?" she asked pulling back to look at him. His face answered her question but they were suddenly startled by a noise, it was Grumpy Doctor.

"Can you just do what you need to do and leave us alone please?" Harry asked them.

"We'll need to take blood and a sample before we go."

Harry kissed Nikki's forehead and moved out of the way so that the doctors could work.

He leant against the window and raised the blind, he looked back into his vacant room, watching the reflections as the nurse took another sample of blood and then Nikki disappeared off to the bathroom presumably to provide a sample. He looked up at Grumpy Doctor but he couldn't read his expression through the mask.

"Thank you," Harry said, just in case.

When everyone had left, Harry moved across and sat down on the bed.

"I'm really sorry," he said.

"You shouldn't be in here, I'm not talking to you," she replied tartly, crossing her arms, having regained her composure.

"I needed you to know. I needed you to know that I meant what I said. You are too important to me for me to muck this up." He said quietly but sincerely.

"What so you can come in here and watch me die, this is not Romeo and Juliet." She replied her face turned resolutely away from his.

"Nikki, you haven't got any of the things you're scared of, and even if you have there is no place else I'd rather be."

"Bullshit," she replied.

"Is it?" he countered, getting off the bed as he felt his own temper rising. "So what if you do have Ebola, or Lassa or the Hantavirus and you've got one week left, you think I wouldn't want to be with you? You think it would be enough for me to stand at that window and watch your body destroy itself? Is that what you think I'm capable of?

What actually do I have to look forward to?

What?

If you weren't here?

What?

Living another lonely forty years of supposedly glorious bachelor existence and then dying even more sad and lonely than I am now? I'd be lucky if I could scrape two people to pitch up at my funeral then who actually cared about me. At least if I die now, I'd have four!"

"Four?" she questioned.

"My mum, Leo, Janet and Zak," Harry suggested.

"I don't think Zak counts," she replied seriously but her eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Good, because I don't think we're dying!" he replied.

"Would you have kissed me, if you thought I was?" she asked.

"Probably…It would just go to prove my point."

"Your point?"

"That kissing you IS dangerous!" he smiled and felt the muscles in his jaw relax as his temper subsided. He was relieved to see that she smiled back.


	14. Chapter 14

"So you're planning on kissing me again are you?" she asked.

It was at this moment Harry noticed over Nikki's shoulder Grumpy Doctor standing at the small porthole on the door. He looked straight at Harry and shook his head. Harry tried not to react but Nikki noticed the change immediately.

"What? What is it? What's happened?"

"Come and sit down Nikki," Harry begged and they perched next to each other on the edge of the bed. She sat next to him but with the sudden change in the atmosphere in the room she crossed her arms tightly and she leant away from him.

"I just had a theory, I wanted it tested. A theory as to what might be making you ill and tired."

"What do you mean?"

"I know it took me a while to get back to full speed after I was ill, but I've been ok for the last couple of weeks, and last week Nikki, you were really tired. Before Friday, before even your nearly all-nighter of Thursday, you've been tired all week, and I was just trying to work out what other possible explanations there could be as to why you've been so tired then and so ill now. Have you been sick today?"

"Not yet," she replied.

"I thought you might have had the bug that I had, but if that wasn't a virus then I couldn't have passed on the drug side effects to you." Harry could see her analytical brain beginning to spark at his presentation of the puzzle but he hadn't finished expounding all his theories yet.

Harry rubbed at his face, there really was no easy way of putting this. "Nikki, a month or so ago I woke up naked in your bed. I know you told me nothing happened and I believe you, I do. But you were drunk too, and you said you were hopefull. What if something did happen? What if?" he baulked for a moment. "What if that were the reason you were so sick?"

Nikki stared hard at him.

"You thought I had morning sickness?"

Harry nodded surprised at how quickly she had caught on.

"But nothing happened," she repeated.

"I know, you've told me that, but Nikki sometimes I find it hard dealing with how much I want you when we're both fully clothed, and back then we were both naked. I just had to be sure."

Nikki turned to look at Harry, her expression softening for the first time that day.

"Harry, really NOTHING happened,"

"I know," Harry said sadly. "You're not pregnant."


	15. Chapter 15

"How?..." spluttered Nikki. "Oh the sample! I thought that was new this morning; that was your doing was it?"

"I'm sorry," Harry admitted.

"You really want me like that?" Nikki asked, referring back to Harry's previous admission.

Harry nodded.

"Then why wouldn't you kiss me that night?" she asked simply.

"I have no idea, Nikki. I must have been practically unconscious. I was probably terrified of being useless and never getting a second chance," he replied.

"Well, you've blown that now," she said.

"How so?"

"Well, if you came storming in here without wearing protective gear on the assumption that I had morning sickness and not some nasty plague virus and it turns out I haven't got morning sickness, then you're on shaky ground."

"I had to see you," Harry said any frivolity gone from his voice. He reached up and stroked her cheek tenderly.

"Were you upset, worried?" she asked.

"What do you mean? I've been worried sick about you for days."

"No, I mean worried when you thought I was pregnant?" she asked shyly, the words sounding odd in her mouth.

"I thought I would be," Harry confessed. "But the more I thought about it, the more relaxed I became about it all."

"Really?" she asked surprised.

"Really," he replied. "Well it would have to have been better than Hanta virus."

"There is that," she agreed.

"I was disappointed though."

"Disappointed?" she repeated.

Harry nodded. "That I didn't remember and it wouldn't be a great start for a kid's life if neither of its parents could even remember the night it was conceived." Harry paused for a moment and then began dramatically: "Well it's like this son, I was very drunk and drugged and your mother was drunk too, but we love you very much…" he trailed off happy to hear the sound of Nikki laughing. He could always make her laugh, well almost always he thought.

"I'm sorry about that time in the pub, sorry about all this" he said seriously.

"Harry, it's ok."

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"OK," she replied truthfully.

Nikki shuffled along the bed a little and leant into his chest. Harry snaked an arm around her shoulders and they sat in silence for a while. There wasn't much more to be said. There would be nothing more to know until the results of the blood work came back and that could still be hours and hours away.

"Do you want to play Hangman?" Harry asked, spotting the notepad by her bed.

"Go on then," she replied.

Harry turned over the page so the annihilated stick Harry was no longer visible and wrote out the dashes.

_ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _

_ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ ?

Nikki stared at the first row, and looked up at Harry's goofy smile. She began guessing vowels.

I / _ O _ E / _ O U

_ O _ E / I _ / _ I _ _ / _ E ?

* * *

><p><strong>Nearly at the end now, promise I'll have it up before the big day. Thanks to Lizziginne, tigpop and Charlotte for reviewing the last section, you are always inspiring. All reviews and guesses for the hangman gladly appreciated<strong>.


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks for all your guesses and super reviews and thanks especially to tigpop, who's earlier reviews inspired the ending . I told you, you wouldn't have to wait long…**

* * *

><p>"Harry you're not just saying this because I've got 48 hours to live," she asked, gesturing to the notepad.<p>

"How many times? Nikki you're fine. Please! I love you, move in with me?" he blurted out too eager to hear her answer to finish the game.

Nikki grabbed the pencil and wrote on her pad but held it tight to her chest. She was just about to reveal it when Grumpy Doctor appeared at the door. He was dressed in casual clothes, no ventilator, no apron, no boots, no gloves.

"You're free to go; it's probably norovirus or something similar, it'll clear up quickly, especially with all the antivirals we've given you. Thank you for your patience and cooperation," he said and left the door open.

Harry beamed at Nikki.

"Don't say I told you so, or I really won't talk to you!" she said.

"Yes, you will," he grinned and tapped the pad of paper in her hand.

"I won't," she laughed

"Show me," he pleaded.

She paused dramatically for effect and turned the paper over.

There were three dashes drawn in the middle of the page.

"I told you I wasn't talking to you," she laughed.

"Yes you are!" he smiled and pulled her towards him and kissed her gently.

As they made their way towards the door, Nikki turned to Harry and asked.

"Harry, you did tell Grumpy Doctor he would need to use one of those special tests didn't you?"

"I beg your pardon?" Harry replied stopping dead in his tracks.

"The one's suitable for the very very very early stages of a pregnancy."

"I, I, I?" spluttered Harry. "You said nothing happened!"

"We were both pretty drunk Harry!" she giggled.

"But you weren't sick today were you?" Harry said.

"No," she said slowly.

"Well?"

"I'm just not sure I really remember all of it."

"But you drove us to that crime scene!" Harry exclaimed.

"Hmm, that was probably a mistake too," she admitted.

"Too?"

She didn't reply.

"Nikki?" he said his eyes wide, his voice low.

"Maybe it happened without us actually knowing … sometimes you don't actually have to do it… close is sometimes enough."

"NIKKI?" he repeated but his voice had seemingly gone up an octave.

"I mean we were both naked…" she continued.

Harry's mouth opened but his vocal chords couldn't make a sound that high pitched.

"Oh, come on Harry!" she chuckled. "You really think neither of us would remember?"

He stared at her; unsure now; desperately trying to read her face. Up until that moment he hadn't doubted her honesty at all.

"What do you mean?" he asked gently.

She sighed and looked away, "Maybe it was me, just hoping again," she admitted. "We would have remembered wouldn't we?" She reached up and touched his face then. Harry leant into her hand, it was the first time, this whole weekend that she had voluntarily reached out to him. He could feel his face grow warm under her touch. Surely he would have remembered; especially if just her hand on his face had this effect on him.

Harry pulled his mock serious face on again.

"I have been told in the past that I am pretty memorable."

"Let's go and find out then shall we?" she suggested.

"That, my dear Dr Alexander is the best thing you've said to me all weekend."

"But I've not been talking to you," she laughed.

"Oh yes, you have!" he replied his eyes shining and happy. "You have said everything to me, I have ever needed to hear."

"Not quite," she admitted realising her omission.

"Why don't you save that for another time when you're not talking to me?" Harry suggested.

She smiled, "Sounds good to me," and then a beat later added "I do though."

"Doesn't count," Harry laughed.

"Take me home," Nikki said and laughed too.

"Home?" He looked into her eyes to see if what she was asking was really what he dared to hope she was asking.

"Home," she confirmed lacing her fingers through his.


	17. Chapter 17

There was no chance of getting any of their clothes back, they had been incinerated as Grumpy Doctor had said they had. But at least their shoes and personal effects had been returned. Between them they had enough cash to get a cab to Harry's, and now they were stood in the hospital pick up bay waiting.

"I feel like an idiot in these scrubs," Nikki whispered to Harry.

"I don't think it's the scrubs," Harry replied gesturing to the silver foil blanket over her shoulders.

"You two escaping from there, for the rest of the weekend or something?" the cabbie called out to them, as he pulled up.

"Something like that," Harry replied as they climbed in.

"I don't normally pick up from the East Wing, but seeing as you two had the gumption to make it all the way round here to the main entrance I figure I could do you two lovebirds a favour," The cabbie continued.

"We're doctors" answered Harry.

"If you say so," the cabbie replied. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone I've seen you."

"East Wing?" Nikki asked.

Harry looked out of the window as they crawled towards the entrance of the hospital and studied the map.

"Mental Health," he said and smiled.

"He probably doesn't want to know where we've actually come from," Nikki giggled.

"I doubt they advertise it on the car park map either!" Harry suggested.

"Nikki?" Harry asked sometime later as the cab finally got moving and Nikki reached over and took his hand.

"Hmm," she replied.

He looked across at her, she'd only been waiting outside for the cab for five minutes but a bit of colour had already returned to her cheeks, and her eyes had lost their defeated look.

"You know you said 'Let's go and find out?' back when we were in your room."

"Yeees?" she answered.

"You were referring to having sex weren't you, and not shopping for one of those expensive tests. It's just that you could have meant it either way. I'm not sure which way is up anymore. It's been a bit of an odd weekend."

"Harry!" she laughed and kissed him again. "Of course!"

**Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review or even had a quiet chuckle to themselves over this one. It was fun to write. **

**Happy Series 15 everyone. **

**And Happy Easter to Ana and Stephanie and me and anyone else of a Christian persuasion. Happy ChocolateFest/Easter to everyone else. : ) And a big hello to Mr/Ms Netherlands and Mr/Ms Ireland… I know you're there… go on make my day…say hi. It's only two letters and I don't bite.**


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